NASA Selects Mission to Study Churning Chaos in the Milky Way and Beyond 27 March 2017

NASA selects mission to study churning chaos in the Milky Way and beyond 27 March 2017

Walker and his team to untangle the complexities of the interstellar medium, and map out large sections of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud.

"GUSTO will provide the first complete study of all phases of the stellar life cycle, from the formation of molecular clouds, through star birth and evolution, to the formation of gas clouds and the re-initiation of the cycle," said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director in the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "NASA has a great history of launching observatories in the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capabilities. GUSTO continues that tradition."

The mission is targeted for launch in 2021 from NASA has selected a science mission that will untangle McMurdo, Antarctica, and is expected to stay in the the complexities of the interstellar medium, and map out air between 100 to 170 days, depending on large sections of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: NASA, ESA, and weather conditions. It will cost approximately $40 Hubble Heritage Team million, including the balloon launch funding and the cost of post-launch operations and data analysis.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics NASA has selected a science mission that will Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, is providing the measure emissions from the interstellar medium, mission operations, and the balloon platform where which is the cosmic material found between stars. the instruments are mounted, known as the This data will help scientists determine the life gondola. The University of Arizona in Tucson will cycle of interstellar gas in our Milky Way galaxy, provide the GUSTO telescope and instrument, witness the formation and destruction of star- which will incorporate detector technologies from forming clouds, and understand the dynamics and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, gas flow in the vicinity of the center of our galaxy. California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Arizona State University The Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic in Tempe, and SRON Netherlands Institute for Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) mission, led by Space Research. principal investigator of the University of Arizona, Christopher Walker, will fly an Ultralong-Duration NASA's Astrophysics Explorers Program requested Balloon (ULDB) carrying a telescope with carbon, proposals for mission of opportunity investigations oxygen and nitrogen emission line detectors. This in September 2014. A panel of NASA and other unique combination of data will provide the spectral scientists and engineers reviewed two mission of and spatial resolution information needed for opportunity concept studies selected from the eight proposals submitted at that time, and NASA has

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determined that GUSTO has the best potential for excellent science return with a feasible development plan.

More information: For more information on the Explorers Program, visit explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov

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